Kristin Lee and John Novacek are a spellbinding duo in their Carnegie Hall recital

United States Various – ‘American Sketches’: Kristin Lee (violin), John Novacek (piano). Carnegie Hall, New York, 12.3.2026. (DS)

Violinist Kristin Lee gave a magnificent recital at Weill Recital Hall that provided a more intimate component in Carnegie Hall’s ‘United In Sound: America at 250’ festival. Lee’s choices for her ‘American Sketches’ offered a sketchbook of ideas on the identity of American music that result from her own research and personal journey of musical discovery.

Lee and pianist John Novacek began in a mood of songful nostalgia with the classically re-worked African-American spirituals by Henry Burleigh in Southland Sketches. From the first notes, Lee ignited the energy in the hall with a resounding tone tempered by a firm yet gentle touch. An adept interpreter, she fleshed out the breadth of meaning encompassed in these small, precious works.

Next, Lee and Novacek carried us forward with two contemporary pieces. Jonathan Ragonese’s  ‘non-poem 4’ offered meditative moments which shifted between the serene and the hurriedly brisk, set against a jazz-influenced backdrop that emerged more prominently in Novacek’s handling of the keys. Staying with the number four, they performed Kevin Puts’s ‘Air No.4’ from Four Airs. In the tumultuous moments, Lee’s virtuosic ease became the canvas on which she developed her artistic voice, clearly pulling from deep inner reflection. The soft endings were sublime in her hands.

Before the intermission, there was one long-form work: Martinů’s Violin Sonata No.1. It was composed in 1929 and, surprisingly, this was its Carnegie Hall premiere. The duo complemented each other with an intensity demanded by this eclectic, if not darkly manic, work. The score churns through nearly every early-20th-century musical discourse (including a twinge of the blues). Lee played with a loving caress of the lower registers which was stirring given the stylistic tensions, and Novacek’s command of the acrobatics demanded in the score worked as an anchor to the violin’s nearly wild ravings. Lee was spellbinding, with her hair flying behind her as if in abandon to the power of the instrument – a luscious-sounding Gagliano.

In a mood shift after the intermission, the duo performed three jazz tunes by Gershwin, Joplin and Johnson, arranged by Jeremy Ajani Jordan. Taking on a smoky, Broadway-lounge state of mind, the two performers fell into an urbane spontaneity, revealing a sweet spot in their collaboration.

As the program neared the end, Lee played through the arc of Amy Beach’s increasingly performed ‘Romance’ with its heavenly soft lines and trills that power up to the climax with exquisite timing. In a night of exceptionally tasteful playing, it stood out as a favorite.

To close the evening (before a surprise encore), they played Novacek’s Four Rags. The piece unfolded like a romp through early jazz history, maintaining a snappy, daring character that suited the duo’s musical partnership well.

After the enamored audience leapt to their feet in an ovation, Lee ensured that we would not leave without hearing the quintessentially American melodic lines of Porgy and Bess. But instead of dashing through a quick encore, she and Novacek treated us to the complete Concert Fantasy on Themes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess by Igor Frolov.

Brilliantly executed with works outside the canon: more recitals like this one that draw on Lee’s research would be welcome.

Daniele Sahr

Henry T. Burleigh – Southland Sketches
Jonathan Ragonese – ‘non-poem 4’
Kevin Puts – ‘Air No.4’ from Four Airs
Bohuslav Martinů – Violin Sonata No.1, H.182
George Gershwin – ‘But Not for Me’ (arranged Jeremy Ajani Jordan)
J. J. Johnson – ‘Lament’ (arranged Jeremy Ajani Jordan)
Scott Joplin – ‘The Entertainer’ (arranged Jeremy Ajani Jordan)
Amy Beach – ‘Romance’, Op.23
John Novacek – Four Rags
Encore: Frolov – Concert Fantasy on Themes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Op.19